World’s Largest Artisanal Marketplace Helps Reconnect Food And Place

On Wednesday, the world’s largest artisanal food marketplace opened its doors for the eigth time in Torino, Italy conjunction with Slow Food International’s annual conference, Terra Madre.

Called Salone del Gusto, the market allows conference attendees to explore important relationships between food, place, and culture, and offers a rare opportunity for peasants and artisan producers, academics and chefs, wine connoisseurs and novice food lovers to come together in a spirit of exchange and friendship.

Terra Madre allows sustainable food producers, farmers, cooks, educators and activists from over 150 countries to connect and share their stories and traditions, as well as their innovative solutions for keeping small-scale agriculture and sustainable food production alive and well.

This year, Salone del Gusto exhibitors were not divided into theme lanes, but organized according to the origin and production of their foods so that attendees could regonize and celebrate regional differences.

One of the most exciting Salone exhibits is the active Vegetable Gardens. Visitors will get to explores living, local, seasonal plant varieties and aromatic herbs.

Highlights of the gardening exhibit include:

a demonstrative seedbed, the symbol of the immense variety of seeds and richness of biodiversity;

compost, a useful element for recycling and avoiding waste;

a vertical garden, an example of the million possible ways to create a balcony garden in any home.

If you’re interested in learning more about Slow Food International, or one of their 1,300 local chapters, check out www.slowfood.com.

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I love having the ability to choose from a wide range of foods. And I think that can be accomplished both by promoting locally-grown and locally-produced specialties as well as having choices available that can't be grown locally on any practical scale.